Marlowe, Christopher

1564 – He was born on the 6th day of February this year in Canterbury, England. He was the eldest son of a shoemaker in Canterbury.

1584 - Marlowe attended The King's School, Canterbury (where a house is now named after him) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in this year.

1587 – The university hesitated to award him his master's degree because of a rumour that he had converted to Roman Catholicism and intended to go to the English college at Rheims to prepare for the priesthood. Marlowe's first known play to be performed on the London stage was Tamburlaine (1587), a story of the conqueror Timur, who rises from a lowly shepherd to wage war on the kings of the world.

1589 - Christopher Marlowe was a quick-tempered man, quick to anger and quick to make enemies. He spent two weeks in Newgate Gaol in this year, charged with murder, though he was later acquitted.

1592 – He was arrested in the Dutch town of Flushing for attempting to counterfeit coins. He was sent to be dealt with by the Lord Treasurer (Burghley) but no charge or imprisonment seems to have resulted.

1593 – He was accidentally stabbed above the right eye, which instantly killed him. He died on the 30th day of May this year in Deptford, England.